Lauren Fleshman is Pregnant

Two-time national 5-K champ due in mid-2013.

In October, two-time USATF 5000-meter champion and Picky Bar entrepreneur Lauren Fleshman blogged, "At some time in the next four years I want to have a kid," adding, "any woman over 26 that you’ve seen running on TV is probably thinking [motherhood] over" while "trying to think of a scenario that is not career-destroying."

Fleshman’s finely detailed four-year plan included Olympic participation in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 after having that baby in 2013. On Monday, the 2011 world championships 5000-meter finalist revealed on her blog that the plan is proceeding smoothly. Fleshman, 31, is at least 13 weeks pregnant.

Fleshman, a Stanford grad who has a 14:58 personal best in the 5000-meter run and was a three-time NCAA champion at the distance, is married to triathlete Jesse Thomas. The couple had decided to “stop preventing pregnancy” and, as Fleshman writes, “we’d give ourselves from September to December, and then I’d focus on the 2013 season if [pregnancy] didn’t happen.” Though she calls herself a “mean, lean distance runner” with “more testosterone than your average fair maiden,” Fleshman learned very quickly that, let’s just say, she doesn’t have to focus on that upcoming track season.

But as many expectant mothers do, she’d withheld going public about her condition due to the usual concerns about the first few weeks. But “after 12 weeks, you’re pretty good to go,” she writes. “As a person who holds very little back in general, you can imagine how EFFING TORTUROUS it has been to keep it a secret.”

Fleshman is currently attending The Running Event, a convention in Austin, to be followed by the Professional Track and Field Summit in the same city. She’ll be investigating prospects for her next shoe sponsorship.

“I’ve been under a Nike rock for 9 1/2 years (a very nice one, but still), and I’m totally out of touch with what brands are worth exploring,” she writes. “This is what I’m looking for: Great gear made by companies that have a brand I can genuinely stand behind, which means they can’t be assholes, or dirtbags, or manipulative cults pretending to be something they’re not, like Lululemon. Gotta keep it real.”

Editor's note: The last part of the quote at the end of this story was omitted in a previous version. That may have left the impression Fleshman was referring to Nike. She was not. The full quote appears above.